Cartoooons
Top 100 cartoons on Channel 4 last night. The full list is
here. Its a reasonable list, with Family Guy coming surprisingly high. It was apparently voted for. I would disagree with placements on this list, and some exceptions and some inclusions, but theres some solid choices. The Simpsons really has to be number 1, and theres nothing wrong with that. It is undeniably awesome, and has in a way defined a generation for us. One of the oddest inclusions on the list is
Legend of the Overfiend, which comes in ay number 72, higher than the wonderful lady and the tramp. Thing is about it, and I must admit to not having seen it, is its hentai. Hentai, for the uninitiated, is dirty anime (essentially....). This one in particular is a tentacle hentai. That is, it involves girls getting raped by tentacles. I kid you not.
Now I haven't seen it, and this could be a fine film, but uh.... its surprising, to say the least. I think not many people voted on this list, which is why that got so high. Who knows? Its a shame the Sun couldn't have picked this up and worked up a bit of outrage- always a bit of fun.
The list is kind of flawed though because it mixes series and films, and I do not rate series and films the same way. I can't really take Family Guy and the Incredibles and say which is better, bcause they do not work in the same way at all. The problem is of course that there aren't enough of either film of series in cartoon that everyone can remember one hundred of, so that makes doing a list very difficult. Meh, I only watched the last 10, where the permenantly presenting Jimmy Carr (does he do anything else these days) hosted. It was alright. South Park at number 3 too! How awesome is that?
The non-offensive fair trade guerillas
Fair trade is great. Its an awesome, simple idea, that is growing in popularity, because I do think a fair amount of people care that we are screwing the other nations over for our own gain. The problem is is that its not ofte available.
Well its time for a change! Alex came up with this rather simple idea, which I think is a neat one. If you care enough, you might want to do it. Basically, every time you have an half hour free, head into a cafe and ask them if they have fair trade tea (or coffee,whatever your poison is). If they do, fair enough, sit and drink it. If they don't, then politely say that you won't buy anything, and leave. If enough people do that at a cafe, its quite possible that they might bring it in.
Now this of course is more likely to work at local cafes run by families- your average starbucks will not listen- and its quite likely in most places it won't work. But I think its a neat, polite way, to fight for change. The small things do matter.
Adam came to visit this weekend, and yea, there was much rejoicing. We went to see Sideways, a film I would definitely reccomend. Quite frankly the selection of films out at the moment are quite uninspiring, so go see this gem as I guarentee it to be better than anything else out there (except perhaps the life aquatic, but I don't really like the look of that). Its a sweet little film about two guys, one a divorced wine lover and the other an about to be married womaniser who go on a trip in California sampling wine, and get together with some ladiiiies. Its a gentle film- the humour is for the most part fairly subtle (although there are some hilarious moments), and it can be very moving in parts. Importantly you do get to feel for these characters, especially Miles, the wine lover. Its got the stillness and sadness that I think were very enjoyable about Garden State and Lost in Translation, but with its own flavour. Honestly, I challenge you not to enjoy this film.
Miserable Failure
I love the
miserable failure google bomb. Its got two amusing things going for it. First, despite it being an insult to the president of the united states, its been up there for about 6 months now. Hmm, that might be an exaggeration, but this story first appeared quite a long time ago, and oddly it has not been upsurped yet.
This is odd. For those who do not know how google bombs work, basically google rates pages on links leading to it. If popular websites with lots of links to them then link to something like the president with miserable failure, then it goes higher in the rankings. So, if blogs gang together, they can google bomb certain links. This only works with certain terms, mind- it would be far more difficult to try and grab, say, porn, and have it link to hamsterdance. But anyways, this bomb would have been created by blogs, I imagine, but as time goes on, the pages of the blog should have started going back, and the link should have disappeared into the archives, losing credibility in googles eyes. At least, as I understand it. A hell of a lot of people must have linked it. Of, course, I did at the start of my page, but the links to me are few and far between, so I don't think thats gonna be a major worry. Still, every little counts.
The other very amusing thing is that there have been attempts by the right blogsphere to
capture back the term . Now clearly two problems have hindered this
1-no-one can be bothered
2-they can't agree which failure they want.
So they have both micheal moore and jimmy carter there, but the president still wins. Heh, so the attempt to claim back miserable faulure, was, in fact, a miserable faulure. Ah, irony. Or something. Right, might not be posting much this weekend as I am playing host.
Moonbat
An insult from the right blogsphere, I found
this rather disturbing list at hundred
percenter. Blogs like this disturb me. First of all, the belief that being someone from the opposite political spectrum is evil..... I might wonder why on earth someone can position themselves on the right, but I would never think them evil.
Second of all, its the lowering of the debate. Abu Ghraib not an atrocity? Isn't it obviously an atrocity? I mean, I really didn't think that would be a point for debate. Surely the debate should start at "Abu Ghraib is an atrocity. I think it is indicative of torture all over Iraq." and my opponent says "Well, it is disgusting, but I really think its a one off occasion." Call me insane, but I don't want to have to quibble over such pathetic things as whether its right for prisoners (many of whom turned out to be innocent) to be tortured by US soldiers. It just isn't. Whether this is a larger problem or not is certainly a more interesting point.
I dunno, it just worries me when the debate gets dragged down to that level (not to mention some bizzare points where it seems to suggest being environmentally friendly is bad). I'm still not sure about Iraq. I do not think immediate withdrawal, as the coalition to stop the war (might want to change the name guys!) proposes is necessarily the answer. I do think it will lead to the strongest gaining power. However, the point I have heard made, that the assumption that somehow the Iraqis "need" us to tell them what to do is clearly wrong. They are an educated people who should be able to sort themselves out, but right now they do not have an army. I think the best move would be to start phasing out British and American troops and replace them with a more international force with a UN mandate, hopefully with troops from muslim countries. Meanwhile, we would train up th Iraqi army to replace this completely. And, if, at any point we are asked by the government of Iraq to leave, we should. It is not our right to stay without permission (incidentally, something I didn't know until recently, only people who did not oppose the occupation were allowed on the ballot.... probably one of the main reasons for a Sunni boycott. Democracy indeed). The thing is, I do not think this is happening. The US is building some millitary bases in Iraq. The oil hs been privatised. We do not have the look of an occupation force looking to leave. Quite the opposite.
But as I say, I am still undecided. I doubt I will march on March 17th, but in a way I will suport what they are saying. The current way the occupation is working is unsupportable.
learning things
Christ I've got an awful bunch of lecturers this semester. Theres the hyper Ruth, who ain't that bad, but isn't that good, theres Nick of matlab fame, and not known for interest of any sory, theres whathisface who... well is not very memorable, theres physics guy who repeats himself, and then theres Udo.
Oh Udo. Most boring man alive, would be the correct moniker for this most banal of men. Why do people like this get to lecture? Surely the university has research for them to do, so they can get competent teachers to tell us about what appears to be the hardest module on the course...... He's also quite the fierce little insaniac too.
Jim Carey
Not a huge fan.... I liked him in Truman Show and Eternal Sushine, and Dumb and Dumber is surprisingly funny, but Liar Liar is dreadful, Ace Ventura not much better, and the mask.... the mask I'm kind of fond of.
I mention this because this evening I was convinced to have a "Jim Carey evening", where we watched.... actually two of his films, Ace and the Mask. My opinion did not change. While Ace Ventura has a few amusing parts, frankly the script is quite awful, and I don't find Carey funny at all. But hey, I tolerated, without a single word of complaint: thats how good I am! As Imentioned, I still have a soft spot for the Mask, which is a little funnier, and with a better plot (kinda....). But on the plus side, I got to have popcorn, and my favourite thing in the whole wide world, twiglets, which Paul had bought. God I love twiglets.... I love them far too much to eat them, as I suspect it would soon form into a regular habit. Every now and then though, I like to indulge.
TWIGLETS! KIERAN LOVES TWIGLETS!
Queen of Wands
Has just come to an end. Its a great webcomic, and you can read through the whole thing
here .Go now!
Need a title
Went out for a social last night, A Students for a Free Tibet social to be more specific. Twas excellent fun- we went to the Yak Yeti Yak, a restaurant I would recommend to anyone who wants to eat in Bath for whatever reason, then went and drank and were merry at the Pig and Fiddle. Actually going out, crazy huh?
All the guys were wearing lovely neat shirts, apart from me. In my defense, I had an Amnesty hoodie, which was moderately neat, and thats the best you're gonna get from me without promising me sex or denying me money. Or promising me money, I guess. So its the best you're gonna get without bribing or threatening me, essentially. I like comfortable clothing, and see nothing wrong in wearing it pretty much all the time. Unfortunately buisnesses apparently still mostly have people in shirts, so when I get into work I'll probably have to sort myself a bit. Thats why I'd like to work in a pressure group or summat, so then I could be all messy and poorly dressed, and people would go "hey, he's so committed!". Its the same with being a professor, you can look as crazy as you like, as long as you churn out those research papers, and at least act like you know what you're talking about, nobody really cares.
Work is finally coming in now, which is great news, as I do love to do it. Work, that is. Not too much so far, but with the next weekends being busy for me, with Adam coming to stay and me going home for my grandmothers birthday (80th, I
think... dunno). Grah, I really don't think university should include work on its course, as thats clearly against some kind of principle somewhere. If everyone wants to claim we're sponging off the government, then thats what we should be doing: not earning it like some kind of crazy fool.
not much to say
A day packed full of no adventure. Whatsoever. I watched Puny Puny Poemi with commentary. It was amusing. I got absolutely no work done, but in my defense, theres little to do. I have more work to do tomorrow. Wooh. Lectures. I have decided to skip one of my tutorials as I get to get up 4 hours later. Its gonna be a HARD problem sheet which makes me do something different.
I've been walking a lot recently, which is good for me, but disturbing- I am a lazy sort and don't do too much exercise: I might get fit. To be honest I SHOULD be swimming twice a week, and I kind of don't do that at all. Oh well, I'm a vegetarian so I am vaguely healthy at least.
Nobody said that the world was fair
You can always tell that I'm listening to music when blogging if my post name is a lyric. This one is from The Eels. Guess which song, and you win a mention on this blog. You lucky thing you.
Ah, its the weekend again, which means I get to get up at decent hours- at about 1 or so, much better than these stupid 10 times. Actually, next week I have 9:15 tutorials, and it will be exciting to see if I can bring myself to get to these. I have this habit of thinking "hmm, if I go to bed now I will have had 8 hours of sleep and be rested. I shall continue for another hour..." which is slightly stupid, but thats the kind of crazy guy I am.
Last night, after some drinks, we inducted Rich to anime in one of the worst possible ways, with Puny Puny Poemi(spelt wrong, I know), the rather insane sequel to the rather insane Excel Saga. I think he kind of enjoyed it, so there you go (not sure what exactly that proves, but it just DOES, ok?). God, the voice dubbing hurts your ears- theres something to be said for subtitles really- at least you can tell whats going on.
I dunno about you guys, but do you find cd cases really fragile? (now listening to that brilliant album by Weezer, Pinkerton), honestly, half of them have broken in my hands, and a large proporton no longer have a lid. Its quite annoying- the Eels most recent album actually broke as I looked at it outside the shop. BrilliantlyI had managed to lose the receipt in that time...... Oh well, such is life.
Amazon
Legend. It has delivered onto me Megatokyo book 3, and the Excel Saga Manga vol10. For that it shall be praised. Mightily.
I've been playing on ratchet and clank 3 recently, which is quite fun, but it is really hard thanks to the rpgish style of the game which means you have to level up your weapons. I find myself using the same weapons again and again so weapons I need to use later in the game are pathetic. The final boss is stupidly hard, and I suspect I won't actually bother to complete this game because of that. Oh well. The Sonic Mega collection is tempting me. Every single sonic game on one disk..... wow. I will ask for it for my birthday, unless I buy it earlier because I can't wait. I've already completed 2 and knuckles twice already (actualy I can't beat the final boss on 2 anymore, but thats besides the point). Its odd how hard sonic seemed when I was younger, and now I can whizz through the games. Wasted youth, I suspect is the cause.
I went to a debate on whether the sponsorship of universities by oil companies compromised them. It was rather good, with good points raised by both sides. Currently, universities do need sponsorship, and sponsorship can be a beneficial thing, but the way they are sponsored by oil companies is not healthy- it is going to lead, and has lead, to the debate on climate change becoming murkier, and the freedom of ideas being repressed. Its very bad news when i seems like every day there is a new report talking about the effects of climate change. We need to take action, and we need to take action now.
disembowling time
I'm trying to get a series of "something"time. It occured to me, reading the titles the other day (I might as well read my blog if nobody else does), that rather than give the impression of "killing" time, they instead imply that its about time for me to begin butchering people. Or disembowling. Which, I admit, wasn't really what I was going for. I guess it'll do though.
Annoyingly, I have to sit around here waiting for 4 hours if I want to go to a debate on Iraq, an issue I admit I have not fully made my mind up on yet. The timetabling is so that everyone can go, but its at such a ridiculous time for those of us who live off campus. Luckily I have my friend the internet to keep me company (as well as Toby and Falex actually, but they'll be leaving in a bit).
OK, nothing much to write about, so I leave.
Top up service
Topping up my phone is always fun. The best bit is when it lets you enter in all your details and then tells you that the top up service is unavailable.Bastards. Recently I was highly amused by the initial talking bit.
"Did you know you could make your three favourite numbers uk national lines?" So far so normal, what she says every tiem (how someone could not know by now.....), but then she continues "as well as sex lines!"
Oh how I laughed (and changed my three numbers to sex lines). Thinking about it, THREE sex lines? Never having called one myself, I can't really see a pressing need to have three different ones. In case you get bored of the other line? You sex line slut, you.
Today is a day of few lectures, and much rejoicing. I might post more later.
butchering time
Ah, back to the typical post, where I'm stuck on campus, waiting for my next lecture. I know you love these kind of posts. "You" meaning my hordes of adoring fans (who forgot to send me a valentines card, silly things! Oh bless their silly little heads) of course.
So yes, had to get the bus today, as the evil Toby had his car taken into the garage to fix it. As a result, we were a tiny bit for our lesson. When we arrived there was a long queue stretching outside the room. We stood and waited for about 10 minutes. Finally, someone at the front opened the door, and asked whether it was the stats tutorial. it was. It had already started, and whichever moron had got there first had not thought to check. Sigh, such is life.
Paul has an uncanny ability to go to the bathroom when I want to. I noticed this during last week, when I would get up at 2 or 3 or 1, and he'd always be in the bathroom. This was taken to the extreme when last night, I went to sleep an hour before everyone. Two hours later, I was still awake, and needing the toilet. I tried to resist, but the need was too great, so I struggled out of bed.... and Paul was in the toilet. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! The man must have some kind of trigger which allows him to detect when I am going to the toilet. Swine, I cry, swine.
Hmm, another lecture today, and then a talk on aslyum (apparently shes going to bring a tent..... this was meant to be a selling point of the talk. I have to say, generally bringing a tent along isn't going to drag me along, but whatever). Excitign stuff. Well, to be fair, far more excitng than my schedule of last week, which was video games........
I've finally found something vegetarian and decent to each at pit stop. This was good, as I was scorned when I asked soley for the mixed salad, but now I have humus too, I am a man to respect (and also a man with a very tasty sandwich). Thank goodness. Not that we go there much. Instead Toby and Alex (Falex) want to go to munchies, the expensive eatery. Curse their black hides....
II have beer swilling around me. Only one pint, but its midday, and I am weak at midday (apart from on pub crawls, when I am hardcooooore!). I shall stop talking.
Valentines day.......
No cards yet, but doubtless just before the clock strikes midnight they'll come pouring in. Unless its like April fools day, and after midday all the cards are actually reversed, and the valentines on them! Or something......
I think I've mentioned valentines day, and already had a rant, so I'm gonna talk about something related, hate day. Think about it, what do humans love to do, other than love? Hate! It'd be a commercial success! Hate cards sent to people you detest, anonymously, oh the fun. The comparison of how many you got.... it'd be awesome. The radio can play angry songs about hell and stuff, and how love is shit. Oh its beautiful. I see no flaws in this plan at all. Lets face it, it could hardly be MORE depressing than valentines day.
So yeah, new start, new lectures, all exciting stuff. Frustratingly I have a pretty much compulsary tutorial on friday, which means that I might not be able to go to Paris with my parents, a trip I was kind of looking forward to. Never mind, such is life. So far my lessons have been kinda interesting. Group theory and mathematical modelling (talking about the scientific method. I do love the logic of science and mathematics: I try to be as logical as possible i what I do). So its good stuff. Added to the fact that I didn't have to get up too early, I'm feeling pretty good. I couldn't get to sleep until some time past 4 last night. 3 was actually too early for me to go to bed (ridiculous, I know, but thats what happens when you do not go to bed until 6).
But anyway, the course has started, so expect more thrilling tales of mathematics.....
Evil Dead 2
I will be the first to admit I did not enjoy Evil Dead in the slightest. I dunno, maybe I was too young when I watched it, but I did not find it particularly amusing, just badly made. And a little gross. Evil Dead 2 is a different story. Its an obvious spoof, partially of the original Evil Dead, partially of all horror films. As such, its absolutely hilarious ideally you should watch it in a group as I did. We only stumbled upon it last night as we were about to watch the Princess Bride, one of the best films ever, and noticed it on tv. So we watched, and were greatly amused, although Jeff fell asleep (man that guy can snooze. It took quite a bit to wake him- the slap with the magazine tactic proved greatly effective).
Along with being very amusing, its also slightly unpredictable. Certain events in the film do come as a genuine surprise. Not a frightening surprise, mind- it doesn't really scare that much (the only point I jumped was when Ben leaned round and yelled "boo!". Swine....), but certainly something you would not necessarily have predicted. The violence is obviously fake, which allows you to enjoy it (a mistake Final Destination made. I know its meant to be silly, but I don't like watching someone getting throttled. Call me crazy.....), without being too disturbed (although there are a few nasty moments). Heh, I've used a hell of a lot of brackets here.
I woke up an hour ago today. Thats right, 4:00. Well, this is the last time for a while (well, I suppose I could do the same next weekend..) that I will be able to do this. Which is a pity. Luckily our first lecture tomorrow is at 1:15 so we won't have to get up tooooo early, but its still gonna be a major shock to the system. Still, the first few lectures are generally gentle.
I discovered yesterday that I have to colllect my exam results from my personal tutor. This would be fine if I hadn't not seen my tutor since, well, may last year, having completely managed to avoid him. In my defense, he never did respond to my email asking to use him as a reference. I wouldn't have minded if it was to be in the negative, but he said nothing at all. Thats just plain rude. Oh well, just have to bite the bullet and do it. I'll mumble something apologetic and grab the results, and hope we dont have to "discuss" them.
Hmm, I suck at daydreams. You know when you imagine conversations with people you might have? Well ok, maybe you don't, but I occasionally do it. Its practice for that scary world outside, or something. I was wondering about how I was going to meet someone new, and was thinking about meeting someone at a club. The problem is is that I don't really like clubs that much and most people I would meet at a club wouldn't be the sort of person I would want to date. So I would have to find someone who wasn't enjoying themselves and had been dragged to the place. So I imagined the conversation would go like this....
"Hey... enjoying yourself?" (sarcastically)
"Heh, not really, my friends brought me along, I don't really like clubbing."
"Oh me too, I mean it might be alright if they played something other than this dreadful cheese."
"Oh I dunno, I really like cheese."
See what I did there? I made myself make a faux pass IN A DAYDREAM! Theres something wrong with me.....
random musings
The blogger home page only says I have 62 posts, which is a blatant lie. In fact, if you look at my profile it also does this, claiming my most recent post to be back in November (or some such ridiculous date). An odd, and vaguely annoying point, but what are you gonna do?
Anyway, watched Raging Bull last night. Very enjoyable. I honeslty don't see how one could not enjoy watching this film, which, while it does have grueling boxing scenes, is not really about that but more about our main character (as Scorcese loves to do..). For those of you a little squeamish about violence, the film is in black and white so it reduces the impact somewhat. I have to say thanks to Toby for buying this for me for christmas, as I got him nothing. But then, he mocks me all the time, so maybe this is his way of saying sorry (its probably some kind of ridiculously subtle mock).
I've just noticed that I can't spell honestly. Or type. I touch type most of the time, a self taught skill. Its always incredibly frustrating to watch someone who has never typed before write something on a keyboard. Try it some time- watch as their fingers hover, trying to find the key in the slightly illogically laid out keyboard (so designed because typewriters would catch if keys next to each other were pressed immediately after one another, I think). Gah, makes me mad. I guess we were all there once, but it doesn't stop me resenting. To be fair I've got a good core of resentment in me, so thats hardly surprising.
Heh, you gotta love those tangents. Speaking of tangents, lets go off on another one. News presenters nowadays always say that the prime minister "is going to announce his plans for tax today", or similar. In fact, they always know pretty much the content of the speech. To me this rather defeats the point- they might as well not have the speech if everyone's just gonna be ticking off the list. I think they secretly all hope that the speaker will go horribly off subject and admit hes been having an affair with a gerbil called Timothy (hmm, is that even biologically possible).
Still not much going on at the moment, and thats how I like it.
mallrats
I watched Mallrats with commentary last night. For those of you who haven't heard of Mallrats; shame! Mallrats is the second film in the series of films by Kevin Smith all set iin New Jersey and all having the characters Jay and Silent Bob in them (yeah, the silent get a capital). They are, in order (I think, not too sure of the order actually) Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back. Annoyingly, while Kevin Smith makes sure each DVD is packed full of delightful features, the UK releases often don't have them on it! Its quite frustrating, and it actually happens quite a lot. Its rather inexplicable- do they think we don't want features? They really do make a difference- I have not bought DVDs before because of their lack of features. But meh, Mallrats does come with em, so that makes me happy.
Mallrats was apparently a flop on release, due to poor marketing. To be fair, it is probably the worst of the Kevin Smith films (although calling it a rip off of Clerks is unfair- its quite different actually), but it is still very funny, and enjoyable to watch. I would definitely recommend the movies as they are very quotable, and it adds5 to your cool rating if you quote them(in the right circles, of course. It reduces it by 10 if no-one has seen the movies).
Cool rating is an interesting thing, in that there is no limit to cool. While one fellow might be cool, there is always something they can do to be cooler. I propose, in fact, that there is no such thing as the ultimate cool, that in fact coolness is unbounded above (shout out to the mathematicians y'all).
I also realised while watching that film that I know of many men with the last name of Lee- but no women. This stinks of conspiracy to me... how does the Lee line propogate? Cloning? Budding? Or maybe it doesn't, and the Lees are immortal entities sent down from the planet blarg to watch over our destninies... Aww, that'd be sweet. But now I've discovered their secret they might come and kill me.
Luckily I haven't given away where I live. Oh damn I have.
Oh wait, its alright, only 10 people read this. And I'm pretty sure none of them have the last name Lee. Still, if I don't post again you will know why.
Crazzzzy
I've been playin a lot of call of duty recently. I can quite confidently say that its never been more fun to shoot Nazis... Its a great game though, well balanced, with a reasonably realistic fighting experience- you really have to be careful and work with the rest of your squad at most points or you will get butchered. Of course you need an uber system to run it.
I know, I know, all these games I talk about are ooooollld, but I am a poor suffering student, so I cannae afford these new pc games. Or, indeed, the pc to run them on, which is a bit of a blow. I've sunken heavily into apathy recently, a natural state for myself, and the universe to be honest. Why oppose the second law of thermodynamics (I wonder if I could get a t-shirt saying that. That'd be a real lady magnet).
Speaking of t-shirts. No wait......
Speaking of ladies, thats where I was going with that tangent, check out this comic. I know its a link to something positive yet again, but this series of strips is awesome, and I was reminded of it by a thread on nice guys in a forum I go to. Its got some interesting truths that us self proclaimed "nice guys" should really look at.
http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02142004.shtml
and, i honour of valentines day, why not look at
this? I'm not sure why I'm honouring valentines day so early, but I got linked by someone, and so you get linked by me.
Hmm, its 5 in the morning. Lets hope Paul doesn't wake me tomorrow to find out whether I'm awake. Yes, I know it sounds like its out of a sitcom, but its actually true. I've been sure for years they've been stealing material from my life....
Another day of nothing
Another fun packed day today. Today was a day for monopoly. Having promised to play Paul at a game a long time ago, until now various circumstances have conspired to stop it, so I could hardly prevent it today. Although I was tempted..... I do like a bit of monopoly though. Its good shit.
Twas a good game, which ended in myself and Fred drawing. As my family will testify, I rarely ever give in in a game of monopoly, so you can imagine just how long this game went on for. To be fair, I really couldn't see a way for either of us to win unless we both had a run of bad luck. I mean, one of us had a run of bad luck. Obviously if we both did it wouldnt make a difference....
We also played risk, which is one of the most random games thats meant to be based on strategy i've ever played. But hey, thats life.
Yeah, this is my life during the holidays. In my defense, my room is now really rather tidy, disturbingly so actually. I'm certain this will not last, but while it does I'm feeling vaguely smug.
Corrupt dictator!
Alright, my nation in Nation States is now a corrupt dictatorship, just as I had always planned. Bizzarely its a corrupt dictatorship with a beautiful environment, but I am a leader of contradictions. Today I will be dissing religon, which is always fun.
In nation states, I mean. Not here. I mean, I do think religon is pretty stupid, but as long as people keep their beliefs to themselves then I'm cool (and don't, you know, run a nation by them...). In fact, I'm always cool (yeah yeah Toby, hit that comments button. I spoil you you know....)
So yeah, got up to nothing much at all yetserday. I'm gonna have a go at tidying my room today, which will be fun. Its a task much needed, as I have mentioned before, before I evolve some new paperlike creature. That'd be awesome actually, but its not gonna happen.
Last night I stayed up til about 5 in the morning, which was awesome, although its not like I was doing all that much. Unless you count lanned Red Alert 2 much. I don't.
exams are over!
Yay...... the last exam was yesterday. It did not go awesomely but who cares- the exams are finally done with, and an entire week of laziment awaits. We started well with the planned pub crawl, which covered a full 11 pubs. I actually didn't get that pissed (having some water (and vodka lemonade at the same time) to slow myself down a little). But yeah, that was a lot of fun, and Alex, the lucky chap, got to have some depressed guy tell him how he didnt make a difference. Although he seemed to be under the impression that we, a bunch o guys studying maths, a group of which half will, statistically speaking, end up working somewhere in the financial sector, were making a real difference. Mathematicians don't make a difference, they make money.
Ok, thats unfair, maths can be very useful, its just your average mathematics student is not going to be applying most of the knowledge they get in the degree, rather the skills they aquire along the way.
I found a fun little toy online , where you can make your own
south park character . Try it out, its fun. A picture of me can be seen at
http://photobucket.com/albums/v284/brokenheartedlaminar/th_me.jpg . My hairs a bit short in it though......
I've also started playing
www.nationstates.net ,which is great fun- mold your own nation! check it out- I'm called Krark the Almighty if you're interested.
Curry craziness
I made myself some vegetable curry yesterday, and very nice it was too. However, calamity struck later on. In the process of cooking the curry I had also been cooking some rice, and in all the confusion and palpable excitement (look mummy, I can cook!), I sort of left the hob on. But, in an act of compelling and stunning stupidity, I also left the saucepan lid on top of it as well.
The result? Goodbye plastic handle, hello plastic blob. If I had a digital camera I'd put a picture up so you could admire my stupidity in detail, but as it is you will simply have to imagine it. The sad thing is is I've done similar before, leaving a plastic spoon in the flame for a while. Although I quickly checked and stopped it after it had only melted a little. Apparently Fred and Paul take time to notice noxious plastic fumes (I was upstairs) but whatever.
It is my last exam tomorrow, and after that I am going to get really, really drunk. I think I might have mentioned this, but its always worth mentioning again.
I've been playing through Call of Duty on Fred's supercomputer, and yea, it rocks my world. I prefer pc gaming because you can save more than console gaming, making irritating sections far less frustrating (although sometimes you'll accidentally strand yourself in a really hard bit....), but unfortunately my laptop leaves much to be desired so I can only play old games on here. On low resolution. But yeah, its quite fun, killing Nazi scum. Heh heh, that ryhmes......
almost over
http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown01.html
Hmm. I agree with this, although the main reason I opposed the war was because I was not happy with the motives of the US administration of going to war, and the plans for after the war were not mentioned. However, if the US does as it claims its going to, and supports whoever emerges from these elections, then I will have been wrong, and Bush will have been- gasp-right. I still think there are better impetous for change than a violent war (unlike all those nonviolent wars), but still. Still, I am waiting to see before admitting that I was wrong- I do like to be right after all, although not really at the expense of thousands of lives.
However,it is important to be CERTAIN that the war on Iraq wasa good thing before saying so. Because that implies that we should repeat this.... Something I'm not sure about. Ick, I don't know. I think I need to wait and see.
Had my vector calculus exam today. It was really fucking hard, and I did really badly. Now I need to start my stats exam- last exam on friday, I intend to have a pub crawl!
Gotta catch em all
I never did catch 'em all. Those tricksy pokemon.
Yes, today is a busy one- I had an exam today, and I have an exam tomorrow. I'm sort of kind of ready, as long as he doesn't ask about...well half the course. On the positive side todays exam went well.
I'm currently clicking the "random question" button in the blogger profile bit... theres some messed up shit there.
"How tall would you be if you had never cut your fingernails? "
" That can't really be a fish you're standing on, can it? "
"Why does the color blue mean raspberry-flavored? "
I could go on, but I won't. What is this, whackiness for the humour-impaired? But I digress. Oh no I don't, cause I wasn't talking about anything interesting.
On the plus side, it seems like the Iraq elections were very well attended, with a fairly good turnout in the Sunni area. I still worry about the lack of representation there, but hopefully this is a bold positive move forward. As long as the coalition is as commited towards moving Iraq democracy and true independence as the people clearly are, then I can see things turning around. It could turn out that I was wrong, and in this case this would be a very good thing, although I suspect the collosal amounts of money poured into Iraq could have saved more lives if instead they had been devoted towards dealing with AIDS and poverty in Africa. I think we should remember this if Iraq does turn out to be a success, which it is of course not certain it will turn out to be right now, that this is a slow and inefficient impetous for change.
Still, as I say this is a very positive sign, and I hope the invasion of Iraq does turn out to be a positive thing for the world.
I've been playing on a lot of X-box live recently, and I've noticed some very odd trends. Some people, when they have lost a game, will start mocking the winners.... for winning. Honestly, a voice dripping in sarcasm said to a team member the other day "oh wow, you got 23 kills all on your own, how wonderful for you." The guy saying this had about 3 kills. Another time, after getting beaten, one guy said he should change his name to Kalaan killer (Paul's name online is Kalaan. Don't ask me why). He had killed Paul 5 times. Paul had killed him 10 times. This is one odd guy. He then "mocked" our British accents, by suggesting that we should have scones and tea......
I guess thats what happens when you play against 14 year old gamers.
